Community Health Institutes head to Lansing to address women’s health concerns

On April 13, representatives from the Community Health Institutes (CHI) of Wayne State University and the Detroit Medical Center took part in Conversations on Women’s Health, an historic, daylong event devoted to addressing the health care concerns facing Michigan women.

Explaining the event’s importance, Representative Gilda Jacobs of Huntington Woods said, “Women account for more than 60 percent of hospital procedures and physician visits annually. In addition, they make up 75 percent of the health care decisions in the American household. So women’s health is critical not only to women themselves, but to their entire family. The more that women – and men – become aware of the important health issues facing women, the better off and healthier everyone will be.” Jacobs, along with Representative Pan Godchaux of Birmingham, brought together a bipartisan group of women legislators to help organize the event.

The event, which was co-sponsored by Michigan’s Women Legislators and the Women’s Health Network of Michigan, featured a battery of health screenings in the morning followed by an afternoon of expert speakers and panel discussions. CHI was one of a number of health care institutions from across the state that contributed to the morning health checks. According to executive director Donna Doleman Lewis, CHI staffers conducted cholesterol screenings for more than 110 state legislators and other government employees over the course of the day.

A major function of CHI, according to Lewis, is to align the resources of Wayne State and the DMC to best meet the needs of the community. While the institutes typically target their efforts to improving overall community health, Lewis hopes that CHI’s participation in the Lansing event will allow legislators and other governmental decision makers to be more aware of CHI and its importance to metropolitan Detroit and to the state in general.